Slashdot Mirror
Wiretap Whistleblower, a Life in Limbo?
Newsweek has an interesting report on Thomas M. Tamm, the individual who blew the whistle on the Federal Government's warrantless wiretaps. The piece takes a look at some of the circumstances leading up to the disclosure and what has happened since. "After the raid, Justice Department prosecutors encouraged Tamm to plead guilty to a felony for disclosing classified information — an offer he refused. More recently, Agent Lawless, a former prosecutor from Tennessee, has been methodically tracking down Tamm's friends and former colleagues. The agent and a partner have asked questions about Tamm's associates and political meetings he might have attended, apparently looking for clues about his motivations for going to the press, according to three of those interviewed."
Here, I thought you were about to tell us how your home was raided by black-suited agents and you were jailed in Gitmo as an "enemy combatant." So you really just chickened out, assuming that you would be persecuted? Perhaps you are not ready for freedom. Do you really think that an Obama presidency will help? He thinks it's okay to tell radio and TV stations what to air. If a station's editorials appear too biased against the left, his regime will invoke the "Fairness Doctrine".
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
It should not be possible to classify illegal government activity.
Huh? I don't know what that sentence means. The obvious literal meaning doesn't seem to be what you mean.
This man took a chance to protect my freedom and yours
That's your opinion. I hope you are not so naive to believe this one-sided retelling of the facts. Remember Deep Throat: it turns out that Mark Felt had significant self-serving motivations.
But the point is that he committed a felony. To say it is "chilling" that he is being pursued for his crime is stupid.
why do you hate America's freedoms?
When did you stop beating your mother?
He means that if an activity is illegal then it's classified status should be voided automatically.
That's obviously silly. It's unpracticable. Imagine an activity where we have a covert op to find a nuclear weapon device, but someone in that op does something illegal. The whole op should be declassified? Well, you may argue, the op wasn't illegal, so it wouldn't apply. But these things are never completely cut-and-dried. And besides, this warrantless wiretapping system itself has never been found to be illegal.
I will elaborate and rephrase that:
"For me the real issue here is hypocrisy."
OK. I couldn't care less about that, though.
Not that I don't care about hypocrisy in general, but I care far more about doing the right thing in each situation. For example: I am against the warrantless wiretapping. I am for civil telco immunity. I am for whistleblowing illegal activity. I am a against individual civil servants deciding for themselves what is legal and illegal and going to the press instead of proper channels. And so on.
Let me connect the dots so your perl-addled brain might understand why people are modding you down
Why am I not shocked that you think up is down?
The mood of post-9/11 America was paranoid
Yes, as exemplified by the crazy statements of the Dixie Chicks and yourself.
The government reflected that mood, and even acted to fan the flames for its own purposes.
Howso?
Historical precedence and human nature are more than adequate reasons to be fearful of it in this state.
Yes, we have already established you are paranoid.
In that political climate, it is very plausible that an immigrations official might abuse his authority to deny citizenship based on the applicant's perceived loyalty.
That is ALWAYS plausible, and NEVER likely, no matter the "political climate." And even less likely is that they would bother to even look at what the guy's written. And what is most likely is that if an official did do this, he'd be in huge trouble for it.